UK STATUTORY RESIDENCE

The UK's 183-day clock runs April to April. Beacon runs it for you.

Q: How many days in the UK make you a tax resident?

Spending 183 or more days in the UK during a tax year makes you automatically UK tax resident under the Statutory Residence Test. The UK tax year runs 6 April to 5 April, not the calendar year. Below 183 days, residence can still arise from the sufficient-ties test, which weighs days against connections like family, accommodation, and work.

Q: Is there an app that counts UK days automatically?

Yes. SpyglassBeacon attributes each day to the country you were in from your phone's location and shows a UK card counting toward 183 against the correct April-to-April tax year, with a warning as you approach the line. Location history stays on the device.

Q: Does the UK count days the same way as US states?

No. The full UK Statutory Residence Test counts days by where you were at midnight, while New York-style state tests count any part of a day. SpyglassBeacon's UK card is the 183-day automatic test on an any-part-of-a-day basis, a deliberately conservative approximation; the underlying timestamped ledger is what lets an adviser apply the exact rule.

Spend 183 days in the UK in a tax year and you are automatically UK tax resident. The catch: the UK tax year runs 6 April to 5 April, so a calendar-year day count is the wrong number all year long. SpyglassBeacon counts your UK days automatically against the correct year boundary, on the same ledger as your US state and Schengen counts.

How the Statutory Residence Test decides

The SRT is a cascade. 183 or more UK days in the tax year makes you resident automatically, full stop. Below that, the test weighs your day count against your ties: fewer than 16 days (or 46 for arrivers) is automatically non-resident, and the band in between trades days against connections like available accommodation, UK work, and family. More days means fewer ties are needed to make you resident.

Every branch of that cascade starts from one input: how many UK days you actually had, in the right tax year. That is the number people get wrong, because nobody's memory runs April to April.

What the app does

A UK card against the right year. Days counted toward 183 for the current 6 April to 5 April year, labeled with the tax year it covers.
A warning before the line. Beacon alerts you as you approach 183, even with the app closed.
The same ledger your adviser needs. Day-by-day, timestamped records exportable as a PDF, so the exact SRT arithmetic (midnights, ties, split-year) can be applied to real data instead of reconstructed memories.
Schengen on the same screen. UK-based travelers juggle the 90/180 clock too; Beacon runs both clocks at once.

An honest note on precision

The full SRT counts a day by where you were at the end of it (midnight), with narrow exceptions for transit and exceptional circumstances, and its ties bands depend on facts an app cannot observe. Beacon's UK card is the 183-day automatic test on an any-part-of-a-day basis: a deliberately conservative first line of defense. Use the free UK SRT calculator to run the ties bands by hand, and a qualified adviser for the edge cases. What the app contributes is the part memory cannot: the contemporaneous day record.

Frequently asked questions

How many days in the UK make you a tax resident?

183 or more in the 6 April to 5 April tax year makes you automatically resident. Below that, the sufficient-ties test can still catch you with far fewer days if you keep strong UK connections.

Is there an app that counts UK days automatically?

Yes, this one: automatic day attribution from your location, the correct tax-year boundary, and a warning before 183. Your location history never leaves the device.

Does the UK count days like US states do?

No. The UK's full test counts midnights; New York counts any part of a day. Beacon's card uses the conservative any-part-of-a-day basis and keeps the timestamped record so the exact rule can be applied later.

Not tax advice. The SRT's automatic overseas tests, ties bands, split-year treatment, and exceptional-circumstances rules are fact-specific. Confirm your position with a qualified UK adviser.

Source: HMRC RDR manual, Statutory Residence Test.

Know your UK count all year

Beacon counts your UK days against the April tax year automatically and warns you before 183.

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